Looks like it will be the morning, at least, before we have any word from Marc.

Good night.

UPDATE 12-18-06 6:26 a.m.: Still nothing this morning. I have a feeling I will be at work when the post comes up, so don’t rely on me to tell you about it. Just remember my previous advice: keep an eye on your RSS reader, or go to Winds of Change and keep hitting F5 (or, for you non-Windows users, keep hitting whatever refreshes the screen on your computer).

Lefty blogger Lindsay Beyerstein sees a sinister motive in Marc Danziger’s work on the Jam(a)il Hussein story — namely, he’s out to save Michelle Malkin from having to go to Iraq:

When the Associated Press reported that 6 Iraqis had been burned to death in sectarian violence, Michelle Malkin and the right wing bloggers went on the offensive against the AP. Their main complaint was that the report of immolation was based on a single source, identified as police captain Jamil Hussein, who couldn’t be tracked down for confirmation.

So, former CNN chief Eason Jordan invited Michelle Malkin to come to Iraq and investigate the story for herself. Miraculously, within hours of the challenge, a Pajamas Media blogger found the source.

First of all: Marc Danziger is a Pajamas Media blogger? That has to come as a shock to him. Marc was initially in on the founding of Pajamas Media, but he and the other founders had a difference of opinion on the direction the company should take, and parted ways. Marc is about as far from being a “Pajamas Media blogger” as you can possibly get.

Second, Marc told me how he came to look into the Jam(a)il Hussein story. I’ll let him tell his own story, but I can assure you that it had nothing to do with saving Michelle Malkin from going to Iraq. No matter: Beyerstein is convinced that it’s all a big conspiracy:

Imagine that, as soon as Michelle is asked to put up or shut up, one of her colleagues solves the mystery. I sure hope Michelle Malkin has a nice Christmas present picked out for Danziger.

The assumption there is that Malkin will not be going to Iraq now. Funny, though . . . I didn’t see any mention of that on her blog. What if she’s still going, Lindsay Beyerstein? Will you take a helping of crow then?

The assumptions continue to fly at David Niewert’s Orcinus, who picks up the crow-eating analogy and runs with it, saying that Malkin

is probably going to have figure out how to eat a full-fledged serving of crow, and simultaneously perform triage on the dead horse that is whatever credibility she might once have enjoyed.

Quick pause here, to say: huh? Niewert continues:

That’s because it’s looking like, after a smear campaign against the Associated Press that revealed more about the Malkin’s brand of journalism than it did any malfeasance on the part of the AP, that the intrepid investigators of the right are finding that, yes Virginia, there is a Jamil Hussein after all. And he is a police captain, precisely at the station the AP reported . . .

Niewert sure is putting a lot of stock in the Editor & Publisher report, which makes it sound as though Marc’s findings are sure to corroborate every aspect of the AP‘s reporting — and which, in classic E&P style, overlooks a lot of inconvenient facts in its knee-jerk defense of Big Media. Again, I’d caution against making too many assumptions. What’s wrong with, say, just waiting for Marc’s post to come out?

I’ll note that it’s almost certain that the AP‘s original reporting was inaccurate, given that they themselves have (very quietly) backed off of one of the major claims made in the original story: that four different mosques were burned.

In the meantime, the folks on the left are jumping to a lot of conclusions, in support of their thesis that conservative bloggers have been . . . jumping to conclusions.

I know, I know. Waiting for the facts is so boring. Still, that’s how we’re going to play it here. Beyerstein and Niewert would be wise to do the same.

UPDATE: Beyerstein has corrected her error regarding Marc being a “Pajamas Media blogger.”

I just got off the phone with Marc “Armed Liberal” Danziger. If everything comes together the way he hopes it will, he is going to blow the lid off of this Jam(a)il Hussein controversy. If he’s able to put together what he told me about on the phone, it’s huge.

I wish I could say more.

I asked Marc when he’s planning to put something up. He’s hopeful that he’ll have the post ready sometime this evening. He promised to call me when it’s up, so you can get the link here, or keep an eye on your RSS reader — or just go to Winds of Change this evening and keep hitting F5, over and over and over again, until the post finally appears.

You won’t want to miss this.

P.S. What I’m trying to say is, if this comes together, this is what everyone will be talking about all week.

Do you see what I’m saying?

The L.A. Times reports:

On a Tuesday in October 2003, Ki Hong entered Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles to serve a five-day sentence for soliciting a prostitute.

He didn’t survive two hours.

Three members of a Korean gang instantly spotted Hong, 34, who authorities allege was a member of a rival gang. The trio had broad freedom to roam the jail because sheriff’s deputies had given them jobs as inmate workers — jobs for which they, awaiting trial on murder charges, should have been ineligible.

They let themselves into Hong’s dormitory using a guard’s control button. Then they stabbed Hong repeatedly, strangled him with bed linen and hid his body in a trash bin.

. . . .

The Hong case cost the county $800,000 in legal claims and prompted sanctions against a dozen jail employees.

$800,000. That’s less than a third of what the city was going to give Tennie Pierce for being tricked into having a couple of mouthfuls of dog food.

Editor & Publisher has leapt all over the possibility that Marc Danziger may have found Jam(a)il Hussein. I’m not sure how long it took them to notice the controversy to begin with, but it took them less than 12 hours to notice the possible solution for the AP . . .

. . . but then, would it really be a solution for the AP? Maybe in terms of public relations, but not in terms of truth. (Query: which matters more to the AP? Don’t answer that!) As Marc notes — and the Editor & Publisher piece doesn’t! what a surprise! — finding that such a person exists doesn’t answer the many lingering questions about the story.

Was the AP‘s story accurate? I don’t think so. Does Editor & Publisher care? And if the story is completely wrong — and there is such a person as Jam(a)il Hussein, Legit Iraqi Cop — doesn’t he have some ‘splainin’ to do?

Stay tuned to Winds of Change for more on this. I tried calling Marc a few minutes ago on the phone, but couldn’t reach him. I’m guessing he’s busy putting this thing together.

Beldar and Dafydd ab Hugh have more on the lethal injection decision. And I’m given to understand that Orin Kerr may have more on it today, so keep your eye on Volokh.

There is a blogger cookbook out, called Blogalicious — A Cookbook of Favorite Recipes from the Blogosphere. It will soon be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and the like — but for now, you can order it only at the above link.

I am one of the bloggers who contributed a recipe. I considered doing one of those hokey recipes — you know, something like:

How to Make a Biased Newspaper

Take three heaping scoops of misleading quotes
Mix in one pinch of sock-puppetry
Add arrogance to taste

And so on. But I realized that it would be kind of annoying, so I just did a brief, real recipe — for something I had just eaten when the author contacted me. It had turned out quite tasty, so I thought: why not that? It’s very simple, but the ingredients are key.

Anyway, it sounds like the author got most major bloggers (and me) to participate, so it should be a hoot. I’m going to order mine right now.